Thursday, January 22, 2015

Willa was due November 14, 2015 which also ended up being her true birth day. I felt all along that she would come early. I'd had contractions for a few months leading up to her birth. I was dilated to a 2 about two weeks before her due date. At one point I thought maybe my fluid was leaking so I went to the doctor to get checked. I wasn't leaking but I was almost a 3 at that point. Monday before my due date I woke up with uncomfortable contractions that lasted most of the next morning as well. I was worried that this was it- excited, but worried. I was pretty uncomfortable at the end of the pregnancy, just like I was with Jude's. I had horrible acid reflux even though I was taking medication for it. I also just felt so heavy and had a hard time turning over in bed.
Eventually the contractions subsided, even after a lot of walking. Nothing really happened after that until Thursday night/Friday morning. I woke up around 1AM with contractions. They weren't horrible, but they were real. They were about every 15 minutes apart so after a bit of tracking them I decided to get in the shower. It was happening just like it had with Jude! We couldn't believe it. Both of us had no sleep just like we did with Jude, too. Ha. After my shower the contractions slowed down, but we wanted to be safe so we decided to head to the hospital anyway.
On the car ride there the contractions just stopped. But the hospital was 20 minutes away so we just kept driving. They checked me in and had me change into a gown. They checked me and I was at a 4, so even though my contractions had stopped, I got to stay. By that time it was almost 4am. My doctor said that if contractions didn't start back up by 7am they'd start me on pitocin. I hadn't planned on pitocin, but I wanted to have the baby, so I agreed. At 730 they started pitocin and I reminded my nurse that I wanted an epidural. She said it would take an hour or so for the pitocin to start working and that she'd get the anesthesiologist to come when I was in pain. Also at some point the doctor came in to break my water. Within a half hour my contractions started and were STRONG. I was having to breathe really hard to get through them already. They were 5 minutes or less apart immediately. After an hour or so they were super close together. Sometimes they'd peak and then go even higher before coming back down. I have never felt pain like that before. After a while I was just yelling. I think david thought I was crazy, but it was bad. Suddenly they were less than a minute apart. I kept saying, where is the anesthesiologist?! Then I started thinking that there was no way I was going to be able to hold still for him to give me the epidural because the contractions were so horrible that I had to move around. I also started to feel pressure in my tailbone with each contraction and I remembered hearing that that mean you were ready to push. I told the nurse and she asked if I wanted her to check me or if I wanted the epidural. I said to not check me because I didn't want her to say that it was too late for the epidural.
The anesthesiologist came in right as I was saying, "How is he going to be able to do this?" As in, I can't hold still enough for him to put a needle in my back. I think he thought I meant that he wouldn't know how to do it or something, so he said "Luckily I just watched a youtube video on how to do this and it said to just work through it." He and David laughed. I didn't.
I tried to sit up but the contractions were worse. SOMEHOW they ended up subsiding a tiny bit while he worked. I have no idea how or why. Almost immediately I felt relief. It was the most amazing feeling in the world. I kept telling David, "I feel SO good." My legs were warm. The doctor checked me and I was at a 9! But then I started shaking almost uncontrollably. The nurse brought me some warm blankets and I laid down and closed my eyes. I totally could have taken a nap. But 15 minutes later the nurse came back in and checked me. I was at a 10. I couldn't believe that I had gone from a 4 to a 10 in about 4 hours.
The nurse had me do a test push and said "Stop. The doctor will be mad if this baby comes before he's here." I could still feel my legs and but I wasn't in pain. It was so different than last time. I couldn't feel my legs at all last time, and I couldn't push well and it took over an hour to deliver Jude. The doctor came in and about 4 pushes later she was here!
She had tons of hair and looked a lot like Jude. She started nursing great. She weighed 7lb 14oz. Since she was born in the morning we had the whole day to enjoy her together. Everyone came to meet her, too. We ended up going home the next afternoon so it was a quick hospital stay.